Tough times mean the big companies get bigger and the smaller firms, well, drop out. On Wednesday morning renewable energy project financier Recurrent Energy will announce that it has bought up the solar project assets of Chicago-based UPC Solar, which has developed solar farms across the U.S. and Canada. Recurrent Energy’s CEO Arno Harris wouldn’t disclose a purchase price, but he said that Recurrent Energy started scouring the market for potential acquisitions soon after the current financial turmoil hit.

UPC Solar has a solar project pipeline of 350 MW and Recurrent now plans to finance, build and operate them, looking to put 100 MW of solar projects online by 2012. Recurrent has the capital to buy up its competition, because last July it raised a whopping $75 million from Hudson Clean Energy Partners. Harris says Recurrent could raise additional capital from Hudson if need be, but they haven’t disclosed a new round at this point. Beyond funding for operations and acquisitions Recurrent raises project financing for its solar projects, which it will continue to do throughout the year.

Consolidation is the name of the game right now in the solar industry. Spanish solar power developer Fotowatio plans to buy up some of the assets of San Francisco’s MMA Renewable Ventures in a $19.7 million deal. And rooftop solar installer Borrego Solar Systems decided to sell off its residential solar power installation business to groSolar and stick with commercial and government projects.